News: Pande, Prof. Balance, Spam, Graphic Engine

[Chrisax]

Friday with Means - May 1st, 2009
With today being a national holiday I will have to be content with time at home with my family and a possible trip to the beach...after the required daily trip to look at tractors to make my son happy.

To briefly sum up our efforts this week:

Balancing Efforts:

Metaing was in town this week (he is the only Designer at Funcom who works remotely) having flown up from Copenhagen to spend some time face-to-face with Genele working on focusing our balancing efforts for the 18.1 update. I think it is important to clarify at this point there will not be a "armageddon-uber-patch" that fixes every issue in the game for every profession. This would get huge and unwieldy and would likely result in unnecessary delays. We are going to work on small, concise and more importantly FAST updates. Going forward with every update we will be focusing in on a few very specific professions and profession issues and do our best to plan and implement a reasonable set of solutions. 18.1 will include specific adjustments to: Fixers, Ranged Adventurers, 1hb and 2hb Enforcers/Blunt users, and pistol users. First versions of these adjustments should be on TestLive next week so I will be wearing my peril-sensitive sunglasses and flame retardant teletubby costume as I follow the discussions on the changes.

Instancing Pandemonium

After discussion with the players our current plan is this: Pandemonium will be BOTH instanced and exist in its current state.

Pande raids will be able to run at the same time as they do now. Exactly the same. No locks, no change in respawn times.

A second "door" will exist for those who want an additional guild/team shot at Pande and the Beast that day. Pande will be broken into two instances: Pandemonium Instance and Beast Instance.

Having a detailed look at Pande has given us a chance to really dig into the potential to add more interesting encounters to the area...it won't be in 18.1 but I look forward to further flushing out this area with end-game content in the near future.

The Engine

Enno and his evil team of coders continue to beat their forheads savagely against the horrible code that is the old AO engine. Standard workflow is that new features/optimizations are developed and worked on in a "sand-box" type environment to avoid long painfull compile times and to better isolate the area they want to work on. As they get closer to a ready state, new work is merged into the full development client to see how it fares. This week work was done to bring in some optimizations of the animation and statel rendering systems to the "full" development AO client.

Spam

I spent one evening this week in game personally banishing spammers from the face of RK. Thanks to those who kept me company as I gagged then burned, exploded or extreme knockbacked these annoying people to oblivion. Was nice to meet you Hopscotch...one of our super-longtime fr00b players indulging his alt-itis on newbie island. Amazing how persistant the spammers really are. I feel better knowing that there is increased support team action on banning their accounts (70ish this week...I don't have the large credit figure here at home.) Work is also continuing on an automated gag system for this behaviour as well as a client side chat filter that will put the power back in the communities hands in 18.1. Right-click ignore in the chat is also in 18.1. *ahem*Hail Macrosun!

Have great weekend everyone!

Means

[Elrojo]

so instanced AND bot pande? Will instanced pande run on a timer also? I guess it cant since its instanced. Will there be a lock out or something?

If not do you think we could calendar in a zods/beast raid each week? I know its a lot to ask for those like Grind/Gordo/Chris who has attended all the raids they can in order to get their phatz.

The issue of balancing was addressed a bit vaguely. When they say "looking at pistol users" what does that mean? Just giving more option to the less cookie cutter options. Like AS pistol for pistol profs (if there isnt already such a thing)

[Grind42]

so instanced AND bot pande? Will instanced pande run on a timer also? I guess it cant since its instanced. Will there be a lock out or something?

The normal Pande will still be run in Phatznet by my estimation, Instanced Pande will probably be a zone somewhat like Albtraum where either you can go in at any time or they will have raidlocks on it like 12man. Cant say for certain.

If not do you think we could calendar in a zods/beast raid each week? I know its a lot to ask for those like Grind/Gordo/Chris who has attended all the raids they can in order to get their phatz.)

Im pretty sure AP & Alliance raids will be scheduled or formed, when do we not help those that need.....

The issue of balancing was addressed a bit vaguely. When they say "looking at pistol users" what does that mean? Just giving more option to the less cookie cutter options. Like AS pistol for pistol profs (if there isnt already such a thing)

Someone on Test may be able to give you more info about this.

[Mrfreeman]

I really really hope they dont do a cheap fix and just throw out a AS pistol that ignores evades and such. def is already down the crapper, especially on a ma since Risian doesnt stack (-24% to my effective base evades or -180 to all evades depending on which I run)

and I also hope they dont make god like advys again with the best off AND def available

pistols will = crats, advys(ranged), engis, fixers and a few solds....

[Rulzern]

pistols will = crats, advys(ranged), engis, fixers and a few solds....

Also docs and the odd MP. Dunno why you lumped fixers in there, they only use two pistols, and they don't use them because they are great pistols.

Also, out of the PvP players, the only people who might actually use pistols are docs, crats, engis and advies, out of those, only docs really use pistols exclusively, the rest tend to use a shotgun/pistol combo (onehander + freedom arms/AMEP/JEPP/peregrine). So in reality, very few pistol profs have the ability to use pistols effectively in PvP.

[Mud]

well..if they are giving out a pistol w/ Aimed Shot you will see a crapload of them for PVP, my eng will be beast with it, fixer would love it over the craphander, adv...and soljas too...even crat and doc, really anyone but melee would do good to slap on a aimed shot pistol for pvp!

[noobas]

nerf an AS pistol.

don't even say such things.

pistol users already have loads of AR adding items, I think the only thing they will do to pistols is rescale the damage.

Adding an AS pistol would be like adding SA to those stupid nunchuks me and freeman use.

It would seriously alter reality.

[Elrojo]

I'm not actually saying you should add AS to pistol.

But for crats unless you go CSS and the ranged alb hud/utils and perk as much Pistol as possible you cant really hit anything. I know you say "but the pets and the stuns", but in BS you spend half your time getting rid of pet roots/mezzes etc and you cant nuke at all. Most of the time I die in BS is because some one mezzes my pets continuously. If i hit nuke i have at least 3 secs of recharge before i can try to unmezz/root my pet, in that time i get hit with perks/AS/FA/Burst/SA etc. Then buy the time its free'd you can bet its just rooted again. Meanwhile the MP is wailing away at me with AS bow and Pets. The Trader is ASing me with Shotgun. The Agent is ASing me with the Rifle...... The other way is NSD/Deprives. In that case i cant use my pets at all and i cant hit with pistol and my Nuke is nerfed i may as well lay down and die, which i do.

I'd love to hear what the solution is for a crat that has been NSD'd or drained... i guess just viral wipe stims?

I just think there should be more to a crat than just suiting up in CSS and all that. Otherwise we are no better than an MP, just with no heals, no AS and crappy pets. Its dissapointing to look fwd to a good CC prof with nukes, debuffs, auras, pets etc and end up just trying to max out pistol and AR and hotswap AS because pets end up useless and pistols miss and most 220 DD profs have way more AR than i have with evades.

If its not an AS pistol, should it be better PvP pet buffs? (less likely to be mezzed/rooted/debuffed/charmed), Better perk lines to add AR/Pistol other than PM and CoLA. I think we should have more avenue to use crat specific skills. I find that most profs dont really have a problem being rooted esp ranged. Free movement stims usually mean that i have to spend most of my time re-rooting rather than nuking. I find most profs can either evade pets, root them or out heal them. Anyone with MoTR ha root resist, anyone with and DB item has root resist... its very hard to root anything. Most of the tiem i cant kill anyone fast enough before they either kill me, root n run or enlist help.

I think in profession balancing they shouldn't just look at the players who do have the best of the best. I think if you can spend the time and money getting every last stat/buff etc out of your character then you deserve to be very hard to kill 1v1. Its your reward for being dedicated. what would you think the % of players have absolutely everything they can possibly have is in BS at any one time? Maybe 1-5%? I think for the other 90% of "pretty well" equipped players some much needed middle of the line options would be welcomed, for the following reasons.

1) not every player can afford to equip 7x CC/CSS and as means originally said the armour was intended to be something a player had only 1-2 pieces of, before people farmed relentlessly
2) not everyone has the time/resources to farm 7x intel symbs
3) not everyone has the ability to equip 7x intel symbs
4) not everybody will have Xan and thus Alpha symbs, activated nano deck, upgraded weapons etc
5) most of the people on BS will not have all of the above
6) Players who do have all of the above will still die due to being mass agged so they are not "unbeatable". I see Forz, scumtron, paperthinjr, antitrinity3 in Decon plenty of times.
7) No one player should be OMG unkillable. You are in BS to have good, tough, close fights. No one should get annoyed because they die, even the super uber. You should be hard to kill, but not unkillable.
8 ) i dont think you should have to wait 3 years to be a viable PvP toon
9) most people hate the idea of prof balancing because they think it will be another way for them to die... "omg not another stun" "omg no AS pistol" "omg no uber pet buff" etc. But what about modifications that just make it harder to die in some cases?

anyway i'm probably way off and i know i'm not as seasoned and knowledgable as you guys but i think people like me make up most of the playing force and the permanently mediocre players should have an avenue to be useful at their professions even if they dont have 3 yrs to farm creds/items to be end game

[noobas]

Rojz

There are a couple things I would remind you of:

many players also have towers, namely: scumtron, other good omni orgs have QL 250+ towers adding 60-120 AAO and buckets of aad.

now, some of them have been pvping for years.

And, experience>>equipment,

but,

experience+equipment+towers >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 5 nabs(unless all five have AS).

Now, I don't think you're trying to kill scumtron, and that is a bad goal to have, so lets just say you want to survive two nabs beating on you, which is definitly easier.

1. experience will teach you what to do.
2. equipment will help, but only if you're knowledgeable about how to use it.
3. towers will help too once you've useing your equipment to capacity.

Experience is what you're lookign for rojo, but it doesn't come in a new nano, or a better pet buff. It comes with knowing how to disable your opponent, or buff yourself so their main attack is deflected or cannot penetrate your defences.

Here are some tactics that may help you:

try equiping a nano range increaser
if pistol AR sucks, try using a craphander for AS, since it always hits, or a QL 225 ofab bow AS,fling, decent dmg.
Try not worrying about your pets, people don't kill pets, but they are annoyed by them
If someone takes the time to root one, THEY will be in nanorecharge. tiem to kill them?
Try runspeed. Try to always keep your opponent just at the edge of out of range.

With a 99% perfectly equipped MA, in BS, I have a hard time killing anyone quickly except nabs. So, I think part of the problem youre dealign with is that you're coming to grips with having only moderately useful equipment, with no one particular advantage that you make sure of.

pistols=pvm
AS= pvp

If youre sick of people ganking you, I'd make sure youre always 13%grafted, fulldef, evades perked, fully buffed, and makign damn sure to put your best mezz/debuff right beside your pets attack macro. Also, try keeping your pets fully buffed all the time. can you do it? then you shouldn't need to worry about getting them buffed in the nick of time.

lastly, I'm not sure what crats rely on more, but, if you can equip an AS wep, you coudl probably just stick in a QL 275 scope, and make the rest of your equipment nano based, combined scouts for example. then you would obviously focus on nano attacks and AS as your primary fighting tools. then you wouldn't have to worry about trying to perk evade profs with your wep, which would be useless anyway, but you could debuff em and mezz em till they altF4'dx2.

[Mrfreeman]

Crat pets are very annoying.... they may not hit often but they do hit fast and hard when they do, so there is still nice damage.

also (IMO) Crats are a support prof, and should not be able to tank 1 on 1 a front line prof,, I mean in all reality you are there to support others not tank/dd (even though cratz can do this VERY well) I mean I wear a full AAD setup, which includes 5 pieces of CM, full set of 300 symbs, and yet a 212 crat could still not die to me, because of stuns, fear, and roots. Also I have no debuffs to run on you or your pets, All I got are 2 init debuff perks, that's it for any debuff we get as a MA.

The down fall of my AAD setup is I can evade "almost" everything (except nukes, go figure, or any nano based attack for that matter including mezzes roots and such... Or AS or SA) but then I cant hit squat either.

and I know crats argue that stuns aren't controllable, they dont fire when you need/want them to or what not, but the same is with evades, I can get chain hit through something like over 5.5k aad and evades. Its a dice roll, which sucks a lot for our only defense. But then I can duel through a enfo that just hit MR and has well over 4k ar with very little damage taken

[Rulzern]

also (IMO) Crats are a support prof, and should not be able to tank 1 on 1 a front line prof

Ho-hum... who isn't?

The profs who (arguably) don't have any useful buffs or debuffs are shades and enfos. Are all other profs support? Should MAs be a support prof because they have heals, RI, MoP, UAWOS and BBCS? Should soldiers be a support prof because they have team reflects, RI, OS, FAT and damage buffs?

The support/arty/infantry prof seperation does not hold water, least of all when the line between a "support" prof and a "front line prof" is as blurry as it is. It seems like circular reasoning; "You can't kill anyone, so you're a support prof", "You're not supposed to kill anyone because you're a support prof".

[noobas]

seeing as how you guys are talking smack, listen to this.

I thought MA's were an evade prof.

HA. think again. ok, hows this for a setup: take your normally equipped end game MA

remove xan paragon, remove masterpiece bracer, remove ofab backpiece...

put on:

Ql 178 poison reflect bracelet
alb poison reflect ring
uh, nothing in neckslot, although I'd settle for a COH item.
for a reduction in hp to a total of ~9000hp

word. Now, lets kill an AS sold.

Oh,ya, and I didn't evade squat. I won a duel with 20% reflects, chaining Mok, not getting caught in a Sh*t storm of hotswaps, and... hum, I think I might have to do an IPR and put on two shensticks again. Because MA's can't evade crap, and hp kills us.

soo, thats my beef, which looks more like a friggin angry cow.

MA's are screwed because we can't use our natural defence, and the new items benefits don't outweigh the increased capacity of capped attacks (think outhealing a 2.7k capped attack vs 4200 capped attack). welcome to nerfdom.

maybe I should take off my chest symb, waist symb and leg symb to boot... well the leg symb can stay, but a support waist would do more for chaining MoK?

[Mud]

haha